


Love that Scent of Peppermint

by KidPhantomThief



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Amortentia, Awkward Conversations, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 04:25:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15259398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KidPhantomThief/pseuds/KidPhantomThief
Summary: "What do you smell?" Keyleth asked. "Mine smelled like sunlight and dirt. More like mulch. Sunlight and mulch. Bit strange, strong, but not necessarily bad. What about you?"How could he smell anything when the overwhelming scent of peppermint practically burned his nose.Or that one time Keyleth annoyed Kashaw, like that has never happened before.





	Love that Scent of Peppermint

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this is un-beta'ed, but I hope you enjoyed anyways.

Kashaw didn't care much about anything. At least that's what other students said, and he didn't try to correct them. Kashaw did care, he just didn't like to show it. It was a lot of trouble to show that he cared because then others started to bother him about the smallest things and that was the last thing he wanted. So Kashaw pretended to not care. It hurt when he first started at Hogwarts, an 11 year old who wanted nothing more than to make friends and have fun, but he learned over the years that nothing ever happened the way he wanted it to. Now in his sixth year, O.W.L.S done and N.E.W.T.S. on the way, Kashaw didn't care much about anything. 

Being in Slytherin didn't help much seeing as everyone assumed Slytherins were assholes. Kashaw was, but that didn't mean they all were. His best friend Zahra wasn't, in fact she was probably the most decent Slytherin ever, she once stopped another Slytherin from hexing a younger Hufflepuff. She was practically a saint in a house full of sinners.

The professors were a bit better. Most tended to give him a wide berth, letting him do his work in peace, but some were different. Like the potions master, Viktor, with his wide tufts of white hair that sat atop his ears, and his nubby hands that had a total of 5 fingers between the two. The potions master didn't play favorites, he was much worse than Kashaw when it came to not caring.

This meant that when Kashaw came in for double potions one Thursday morning with the rest of the Slytherins, expecting to be on his own, he couldn't argue when he was partnered with a tall Ravenclaw with long reddish-orange hair who looked down at the various potion bottles like they were all poison. In her hands they probably were judging from the tilt in her head and the wide eyed stare she flitted between them all.

They were seated on the far side of the classroom, next to the professors own bubbling cauldron that emitted swirls of smoke, dissipating when it hit the ceiling. 

Kashaw set his books down, kicking back in his chair, not bothering to spare another glance at the girl. At least he tried not to spare her another glance. He remembered seeing her everyday in potions, but he didn't notice before how tall she was. Kashaw wasn't short, but this girl had a few inches on him. Her bushy hair fell to her waist and curled at the ends in random directions. Freckles were sprinkled over her small nose and her wide brown eyes continued to roam over the various ingredients on their table as if she had never seen them before. She absentmindedly played with a plastic wrapper and Kashaw guessed she was eating some sort of candy. She always seemed to have something sweet on her, offering mints to anybody she could.

"Students, we will be brewing amortentia today. Now remember from our previous lesson, it is vital you use the correct portions unless you all want to end up missing a limb. Ha Ha!" Viktor chortled as he stuck out his left hand, showing his missing fingers to a skinny Ravenclaw boy who sat in the front . "I'm just kidding. It won't explode. But it will still be very bad, so don't. You all have about an hour and then we will go over your potions. Please begin." 

Kashaw opened his book, looking through the directions thoroughly, noting to himself whenever a step seemed proned to error and readied his area. The girl next to him hadn't even opened her book and Kashaw felt a twinge of irritation flare between his eyes. He was going to have another useless partner again.

"Hey, have you read the notes for brewing amortentia?" He asked as he reached across her for the first ingredient. 

That was apparently the wrong move. 

As soon as his arm started to reach around her, she jumped back in her seat, knees hitting the table causing their cauldron pot to teeter and half their ingredients to fall off. Kashaw managed to catch the pot before he fell off, but the bowl of ashwinder eggs and vial of peppermint oil slid off, shattering on the floor. The flare of irritation turned into a throb of annoyance.

The Ravenclaw girl began to apologize profusely, dropping to the floor to pick up the shattered egg shells and broken vial pieces with her long fingers. 

"Don't touch it, you'll just hurt yourself," Kashaw said, scowling. He pulled his wand out, quickly cleaning it up as the girl stared at him wide eyed.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't concentrating on you, I was trying to memorize the ingredients. Not that what you were saying wasn't important, I didn't realize you were talking. I can kind of get inside my own head sometimes and tend to just ignore everything else, like my mind is narrowing down into a funnel and-" Kashaw held his hand up interrupting her mid thought.

"It's fine, I get it." He said simply, glancing down at where the vial of peppermint oil fell. Another he had gotten rid of the mess, the smell was strong and it seemed to clog his senses. Everything smelled of peppermint. It would probably screw up what everybody smelled once they finished their potions. 

The first step involved the ashwinder eggs and now their's were all ruined. Hopefully Professor Viktor would understand, but Kashaw had a feeling that despite the old man's....quirky personality, it wasn't a good idea to cause accidents like these. How else did the crazed man lose half his fingers.

The girl followed his gaze to the book, eyes scanning the page. "I wasted half our stuff, didn't I?" She said with a contrite expression. Kashaw didn't try to sugarcoat simply stating, yes she did. She looked around, sidestepping the two Slytherin's next to them to talk to a fairly tall Slytherin with white hair and spectacles. Kashaw knew his name was Percy or Percival or something fancy, but that was it. The boy kept to himself, like most Slytherin's, but he smiled up at the Ravenclaw girl as she said something to him. He nodded, handing her an egg and a vial and she walked back over smiling.

"Percy said we could borrow some of his ingredients. Sorry again," she said sheepishly as she set them down. The egg, without a container to sit in, rolled to the edge of the table and Kashaw quickly caught it has it fell off. The girl stared wide eyed before giving another sheepish smile. 

"Maybe I should handle the ingredients," Kashaw said. He didn't mean to sound rude, or maybe he did, but he knew that there was a higher chance of failure if this girl touched them. "Can you read the directions out to me?"

She nodded, pulling the book closer. The class passed quickly as she directed what ingredients went next and how to prepare them. Despite the difficult start, Kashaw didn't mind the Ravenclaw. 

"Oh I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Keyleth," she said as he was carefully measuring out the peppermint oil. The smell of peppermint was still strong and he didn't want mess up and make it worse. 

"Kashaw," he said quietly, watching the oil slowly fill up his spoon.

"Cashew?" she said quizzically. He dumped the oil in the pot, setting down the vial harshly. The glass clinked on the wood and he glared towards the professor's desk. 

"No, it's Kashaw. Not Cashew." He knew it was an honest mistake, but a lot of people had these honest mistakes about his name and it got tired after awhile. 

Keyleth hummed. "Kashaw," she said softly. He glanced up at her before he added the moonstone, but she was looking down at the potions book, a small smile on her face, popping another peppermint in her month. Was she always like this? So smiley. Kashaw wanted to know what was it about his name that made her happy, 

He didn't realize how long he looked at her until she glanced up, eyebrows raised. Kashaw couldn't guess what she was thinking, not until her hand came out of a pocket in her robes and unfurled showing a small piece of peppermint wrapped in clear plastic. "Mint?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"No, thanks," he said turning back to his work. Everything smelled of peppermint and it was giving him a headache. How could she still be eating them?

They both continued to work in near silence, Keyleth giving directions as Kashaw followed and soon the potion was almost completed. Professor Viktor stood in front of the class asking them to finish up, remember to clean up their stations after submitting their work because a clean station was a happy station. Kashaw was pretty sure Viktor had a few bolts loose along with some missing appendages. 

Kashaw quickly bottled up their potion, bringing it to the stand in the front of the class. He came back to the table as Keyleth was finishing cleaning up, making the rest of the potion disappear from their cauldron and sweeping up the bits of moonstone that broke off when Keyleth accidentally dropped it on the ground.

-I though I said I would take care of the ingredients.-

-Sorry!-

"Let's go over the fruits of your labor," Professor Viktor chuckled as the last student slipped their vial of amortentia into the stand. Following the line of glass vials, it was astounding how different each potion looked, none of them like shiny, silver color that Viktor had shown at the beginning of class. 

Keyleth's and Kashaw's potion looked similar to the potion, but it had a small rose tint to it and Kashaw had no idea what he did wrong. Maybe he added a bit too much rose thorns...

"Full points to Zahra and Muncan. Look at the sheen their potion has," he smiled, twirling the vial in the light. Of course Zahra would get it right, Kashaw bet she concocted it all the time to cause chaos. Not to make men fall in love with her, but just to see the world burn. It was why they were good friends. 

He watched on as the professor looked at their vial, nodded once and then moved on. Not the best reaction, but at least it wasn't a bad one. 

After Viktor had graded everyone's potion, he explained the common mistakes and dire consequences that could arise when making amortentia. In the last ten minutes of class, he uncorked Zahra's amortentia and passed it around.

"When it is brewing it has a nice spirals of steam that you can't see as well from the vial. Take a good sniff and see what your ideal scent is like." He passed the vial to a raven haired girl in the front of the room.

Slowly it came around until Keyleth took a sniff, scrunching her nose and passed it to him. He smelled the lip of the vial. Once. Twice. One more time before he passed it on.

"What do you smell?" Keyleth asked. "Mine smelled like sunlight and dirt. More like mulch. Sunlight and mulch. Bit strange, strong, but not necessarily bad. What about you?"

How could he smell anything when the overwhelming scent of peppermint practically burned his nose.

Kashaw opened is mouth, but Zahra stopped in front of their table before going out the door. "You coming?" She glanced over at Keyleth with a raised eyebrow, going between the two of them. "Hi, I'm Keyleth. I'm from Ravenclaw." She put her hand out towards the other girl. 

Zahra's expression softened, giving a small smile to the taller girl before sticking her hand out. "Zahra. Slytherin." They shook and Keyleth gave a small laugh. Why the fuck was she always so happy, Kashaw didn't get it.

"Well see you guys tomorrow in Herbology!" The red head gave a thumbs up before bouncing over to Percy who was talking to the twins that were in Slytherin. Kashaw didn't know much about them except they were dangerous when paired together. 

"I take it class went well?" Zahra asked as they left the hall.

"If you count being stuck with a clumsy bobble-head who almost caused multiple accidents while barely moving as going well, than yes, class went perfect." Kashaw sighed as Zahra burst out laughing, startling some first years in front of them. "I'm just glad lunch is after potions, because I would have gotten indigestion from the amount of stress she caused me over the past two hours."

Zahra rolled her eyes. "It couldn't have been that bad. You aren't bleeding profusely and you haven't killed anybody, so all in all, I think class did go well for you. If she was as annoying as you said she was, you would have hexed her."

As they both entered the great hall, mail owls fluttered through the tall windows on each side, passing out the post to various students and professors. Kashaw and Zahra grabbed seats across from each other at the Slytherin table and began to eat as soon as the food appeared in front of them.

"Class went well for you too. Perfect score again." Kashaw muttered between a mouthful of roast beef. "Could see you were paired with Vex today. I thought you didn't like her. Why not just let her sit with her brother?"

"It's more fun being passive aggressive than not saying anything at all," she replied. "That and as soon as I walked in Professor Viktor had separated the two of them and made me sit with her. Despite the damage to his body, I don't think the professor is all that crazy if he could recognize the twins being shady."

"I'm sure the professor has a store of poisons or dangerous shit somewhere in his office. Maybe they were trying to get to that," Kashaw ventured. His eyes roamed the hall, spotting the red head from potions as she stood tall above everyone else. 

Zahra shook her head. "Naw, they were eyeing his cauldron by you guys. I bet they were trying to find a way to bottle up the love potion and sell it to the highest bidder." Zahra took a big spoonful of pudding, flicking some at him. It landed on his cheek and she laughed.

"When she smelled our dose of amortentia, she blushed like a little schoolgirl and I swear she looked at that white haired kid with glasses sitting behind us. I asked her what she smelled, but she brushed me off. Mine smelled of sugared peaches. Weird right? What did your smell like?" She asked.

"I couldn't smell it. My partner broke our vial of peppermint oil and the smell wouldn't go away," Kashaw replied. 

"Wow. You always get the clumsy ones. Why didn't you clean it up?"

"I did, but the smell stuck. I used that one spell you taught me. It vanished, but the smell was so strong, I was starting to get a headache." Kashaw glanced up from his plate to see his best friend frozen, spoon halfway to her mouth. "What is it?" He asked as she slowly put her spoon down. 

She gave him a quizzical look before pointing at him. "You do know that spell I taught you helps clean a mess. All of it. Including the smell. That's why it took you so long to learn it, because its almost two spells in one. If you correctly used it, the smell would have gone away."

This time it was Kashaw's turn to freeze, forkful of mashed potatoes halfway to his mouth. what.

He saw Zahra's eyes widened slightly before shooting a hand to her mouth, trying to muffle her laughter. Trying but failing.

"You know, you look really unattractive when you do that," Kashaw muttered, hanging his head in his hands.

"The professors cauldron was next to you the whole time. Anytime you smelled peppermint, it was the amortentia." Zahra chuckled, her hair falling over her shoulders as she reached across the table to pat his shoulder. "There there old pal. Don't get your panties in a twist. Come on Kashaw you have to admit that is fucking funny." She continued to laugh as Kashaw leveled her with the best murderous stare he could muster.

"Hilarious."

"Peppermint huh?" Zahra chuckled. "So whoever your soulmate is, they smell of peppermint. Could be a lot worse. They could smell like morning breath. Maybe they eat a lot of mints."

Kashaw paused. No. That was impossible. What were the odds of the vial spilling and the amortentia smelling like peppermint. Did that Ravenclaw girl plan it. She had to, because if she didn't, that meant-

Kashaw took a glance up and his one yellow and one blue eye met green eyes for a brief moment.

From across the great hall, Keyleth had paused in her meal and gave a small wave to Kashaw who returned it weakly. At his movement, Zahra turned around to see what he was looking at. Slowly facing him once again, one of her eyebrows rose on her forehead. 

"What aren't you telling me Kashaw Vesh?" she asked leaning forward in her seat.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."


End file.
